Volume I, Treatise I, Chapter IX

How Important Tt Is not to Neglect the Smallest Things

“He that contemneth small things,” as it is said in Ecclesiasticus, “shall fall by little and little.” (Ecclesiasticus 19:1) The doctrine contained in these words is of great importance to all persons, especially to those who aspire to perfection: for we are exact in the performance of great things, as they carry with themselves their own recommendation; but it is very usual with us to be careless in small things, as we fancy they are of no great consequence. In this, however, we deceive ourselves, because it is very dangerous to neglect and fail in these things;

and therefore the Holy Ghost in this passage of Scripture declares to us, “That he who contemns small things, shall fall by little and little.” To convince us then of this truth, and to oblige us to be watchful, it ought to be sufficient that God himself says so: but in order that this may make a deeper impression on our minds, when treated more at large, let us consider what was the opinion of the saints on this subject. St. Bernard says, ‘“That those who run into disorders and crimes of the highest nature, begin at first by committing small faults, and no person ever falls or plunges himself all at once into an excess of wickedness.” (Bern. de ord. vit. et mor. instit.) That is to say, that commonly speaking, none ever ascend at once to the highest point of vice or virtue, but that good and evil gradually insinuate themselves, and grow insensibly in us. It happens in spiritual as it does in corporal diseases; both the one and the other increase by little and little: so that when you see a religious commit some great fault do not imagine, says the saint, that his disease then begins, for none ever fall on a sudden into an enormous sin, after having a long time led an innocent and virtuous life. But they begin first by negligence in those duties which they consider as unimportant, then their devotion growing cold, it diminishes daily more and more: so that at length they deserve that God should withdraw his hand, and no longer supported by him, they easily yield and fall under the first great temptation that attacks them.

Cassian explains this very well, by a comparison taken from holy Scripture. Houses fall not to ruin on a sudden, but the damage first begins by some gutters out of repair and neglected, through which the rain entering, by degrees rots the timber that sustains the building; in process of time it penetrates the wall, dissolves the cement, and at last undermines the very foundation, so that the whole edifice tumbles to the ground, perhaps in one night. “By slothfulness,” says the Holy Ghost in Ecclesiastes, “‘a building shall be brought down, and through weakness of hands, the rain shall drop through.” (Ecclesiastes 10:18) Every one knows, that by neglecting to repair a gutter, or to examine the roof carefully in time, the whole building at last falls, It is just so with us, says the same author, a certain. natural inclination which we have to evil, first flatters our senses, then gains ground, and insinuating itself into our souls, shakes the firmness of our good resolutions, and at last so weakens and undermines the whole foundation of our piety, that the entire spiritual edifice falls in a moment. A little care and vigilance in the beginning might have easily prevented the growth of the evil; but because we neglected it when it was but small, and did not take care in time to correct such faults, as appeared to us but inconsiderable, it happens that this shameful sloth is the cause, why we suffer ourselves to be overcome by any temptation that occurs; nay, some thereby abandon their religious order, and become miserable apostates. Would to God that sad experience had not taught us, that these woful examples are too frequent amongst us! In truth we have great reason to wonder, and to tremble at the same time, when we consider that the ruin of many who have fallen into this precipice, had its origin from small and trifling oceasions. All this happens by the wile and craft of the devil, who dares not attack those that serve God, by tempting them in the beginning to omit things very essential, but begins by those that seem to be of little consequence, and always insensibly gaining some slight advantage, he succeeds better in this manner, than if he had acted otherwise. For if at first he should propose and tempt us to mortal sin, he would be quickly discovered and repulsed; but insinuating himself by little and little, he through our slight omissions and small faults gets into our souls before we are aware it. It is for this reason St. Gregory says, “that small faults are in some manner more dangerous than great ones” (Greg. 3, past. adm. 34), because great faults, as soon as we reflect on them, carry such horror along with them, as obliges us to endeavour to arise speedily after we have fallen, and to be very circumspect in avoiding them for the future. But the less we perceive small faults, the less we avoid them, and making no account of them, we fall so often, that in time we acquire such a habit of them, as we seldom or never are able to eradicate; so that the evil which at first seemed nothing becomes, by our neglect and frequent relapses, almost incurable. St. Chrysostom confirms the same, when treating of this subject: “I dare,” says he, “advance a proposition which will appear strange and unheard of. It seems to me that men ought to be less vigilant in flying from great sins, than in avoiding small faults; for the enormity of great -sins naturally excites in us a horror of them, but we are easily induced to commit little faults, because we fancy them not to be considerable, and the little account we make of them, preventing us from endeavouring to correct them, they become at last so great by our negligence, that we are no longer able generously to resist and put a stop to them.” (Chrys. hom. 87. sup. Mat.) It is for this reason that the devil chiefly makes use of this means to assault religious, and those that serve God, because he knows it Will be afterwards more easy for him to make them fail in greater and more essential duties. “It makes no matter,” says St. Austin, “whether a ship be sent to the bottom by one great wave, or whether the water entering gradually by the chinks, and being ne- - glected to be pumped, at length sinks the vessel.” (Aug. Ep. 118. ad Seleu.) The devil, in like manner, cares not whether he enters the soul by this or that breach, all being equal to him, provided he attains his end, and brings you to a miserable shipwreck. St. Bonaventure says, “That of many small drops of rain great torrents are formed, which undermine and tumble down strong walls; and that a small chink by which the water gets into a ship, oftentimes causes the loss of the vessel:” (Bon. sup: Ps. Ixvi.) Wherefore St: Austin tells us, that as when a ship springs a leak, we must immediately pump, in order to get out the water and prevent her from sinking; so we also, by fervent prayer, and a strict examination of conscience, must continually endeavour to root out of our heart whatever imperfection or impurity had found its way into it, which if neglected would at last cause our ruin. This should be the continual exercise of a religious; he must incessantly labour to amend his faults, and continually put his hand to the pump, otherwise he will be in great danger of perishing. ‘“You are armed,” says St. Austin in another place, ‘ and prepared to defend yourself against great sins; but what care do you take to avoid small faults? Are you not afraid of them also? You have already thrown overboard those heavy bales, which would have sunk your ship; but take care that the small heap of sand, still in the hold, does not bring you down.” (Aug. sup. (Psalms 39:13)) You have happily escaped all the storms raised against you, in the tempestuous sea of the world; but take precaution lest you be wrecked in the harbour of religion. For as it would avail nothing that a ship should have weathered all the storms, and escaped all the rocks at sea, if she is wrecked in port; so it would be of no advantage to you to have resisted all the assaults of the strongest temptations, if afterwards you yield to weaker ones and thereby lose your soul,.

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